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What is the correct HTTP status code to send when a site is down for maintenance?

Asked 2010-05-07T06:21:37.417
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Is there a HTTP status code to tell Google (and others) to go away, index me again later?

Basically, one that semantically tells clients that the site is down for maintenance?

The ones I have considered are

304 => Not modified
307 => Temporary redirect
410 => Gone
503 => Service Unavailable

I'm leaning towards the last one, but was just curious as to which one was proper choice.

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I'd consider the 503 to be most appropriate, since the 5xx-group is meant for server errors in general.

answered 2010-05-07T06:23:10.083

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